STATE PAPERS OMITTED. 
the period of their conquest, 
belong either to their respective 
family collections, or to the coun= 
tries over which they now actu- 
ally reign. 
Whatever value the Prince 
Regent might attach to such ex- 
quisite specimens of the fine arts, 
if otherwise acquired, he has no 
wish to become possessed of them 
at the expense of France, or ra- 
ther of the countries to which 
they of right belong, more espe- 
cially by foilowing up a principle 
in war which he considers as a 
reproach to the nation by which 
it has been adopted ; and so far 
from wishing to take advantage 
of the occasion to purchase from 
the rightful owners any articles 
they might, from pecuniary con- 
siderations, be disposed to part 
with, his Royal Highness would 
on the contrary be disposed rather 
to afford the means of replacing 
them in those very temples and 
galleries, of which they were so 
long the ornaments. 
Were it possible that his Royal 
Highness’s sentiments towards 
the person and cause of Louis 
XVIII. could be brought into 
doubt, or that the position of his 
Most Christian Majesty would be 
injured in the eyes of his own 
people, the Prince Regent would 
not come to this conclusion with- 
out the most painful reluctance ; 
but, on the contrary, his Royal 
Highness really believes that his 
Majesty will rise in the love and 
respect of his own subjects, in 
proportion as he separates him- 
self from these remembrances of 
revolutionary warfare. These 
spoils, which impede a moral re- 
conciliation between France and 
the countries she has invaded, are 
603 
not necessary to record the ex- 
ploits of her armies, which, not- 
withstanding the cause in which 
they were achieved, must ever 
make the arms of the nation re- 
spected abroad. But whilst these 
objects remain at Paris, consti- 
tuting, as it were, the tltle deeds 
of the countries which have been 
given up, the sentiments of re- 
uniting these countries again to 
France, will never he altogether 
extinct: nor will the genius of 
the French peopleever completely 
associate itself with the more li- 
mited existence assigned to the 
nation under the Bourbons. 
Neither is this epinion given 
with any disposition on the part 
of the Prince Regent to humiliate 
the French nation. His Royal 
Highness’s general policy, the de- 
meanour of his troops in France, 
his having seized the first moment 
of Buonaparte’s surrender to re- 
store to France the freedom of 
her commerce, and, above all, the 
desire he has recently evinced to 
preserve ultimately to France her 
territorial integrity, with certain 
modifications essential to the se- 
curity of neighbouring States, 
are the best proofs that, consi- 
deration of justice to others, a 
desire to heal the wounds inflicted 
by the revolution, and not any illi- 
beral sentiment towards France, 
have alone dictated this decision. 
The whole question resolves 
itself into this: —Are the powers 
of Europe now forming in since- 
rity a permanent settlement with 
the King? And ifso, upon what 
principles shall it be concluded? 
Shall it be upon the conservation 
or the abandonment of revolu- 
tionary spoliations ? 
Can the King feel his own digs 
